Italian
Linda Lavin, star of CBS’ long-running sitcom “Alice” and a Tony winner for Neil Simon’s play “Broadway Bound” who remained active in TV and on stage, died Sunday. She was 87.
A representative for Lavin confirmed the actress died unexpectedly Sunday due to complications from lung cancer that had been recently discovered. As recently as Dec. 4 Lavin attended the premiere of Netflix’s dark comedy series “No Good Deed” at the streamer’s Tudum Theater in Hollywood.
“Alice” was based on Martin Scorsese’s 1974 film “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” with Ellen Burstyn in the title role. The series, which ran from 1976-85, starred Lavin as Alice Hyatt, a widow with a young son (played by Philip McKeon) who starts life again in Arizona, where she works at Mel’s Diner (whose eponymous owner was played by Vic Tayback), alongside fellow waitresses Flo (Polly Holliday) and Vera (Beth Howland).
Lavin was Emmy nominated for her work on the series in 1979.
“Alice” was a top-30 show throughout its first eight seasons, finishing the 1979-80 season at No. 4, before finally dropping off in its last season. The series subsequently appeared in syndication.
In 2015 she appeared in Nancy Meyers’ comedy “The Intern,” starring Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway, and she had the films “My Bakery in Brooklyn” and “Manhattan Nocturne” set for release in 2016. In the last decade, Lavin was busy with roles on such series as Netflix’s “No Good Deed” and CBS’ “Elsbeth” as well as the CBS comedy “9JKL.” Other recent TV shots include CBS’ “B Positive,” Amazon Prime’s “Being the Ricardos,” IFC’s “Brockmire,” Netflix’s “Santa Clarita Diet,” CBS’ “Madam Secretary,” “Mom” and “The Good Wife,” NBC’s “Sean Saves the World,” Fox’s “The O.C.,” “HBO’s “The Sopranos” and more.
Though Lavin made appearances on television after “Alice,” she was actually more of a stage actress — one who was Tony nominated six times, for featured actress in a play in 1970 for Neil Simon’s “Last of the Red Hot Lovers”; leading actress in a play in 1987 for Simon’s “Broadway Bound,” which she went on to win; featured actress in a play in 1998 for “The Diary of Anne Frank”; leading actress in a play in 2001 for Charles Busch’s “The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife”; leading actress in a play in 2010 for Donald Margulies’ “Collected Stories”; and leading actress in a play in 2012 for Nicky Silver’s “The Lyons.”
Lavin was noted for her charismatic work in both drama and comedy, to say nothing of musicals. When “The Lyons” was still Off Broadway, the New York Times praised her in particular for “the surprising dimensions she finds within one-liners.”
In 1990 Lavin replaced Tyne Daly in the starring role of Rose in a Broadway revival production of the musical “Gypsy.” In 1994 she was a replacement in Wendy Wasserstein’s “The Sisters Rosenzweig,” and in 2002 she starred in “Hollywood Arms,” written by Carol Burnett and her daughter Carrie Hamilton.
After “Alice” Lavin, kept busy with theater work, making only occasional forays into TV. But the Peak TV moment of the past decade kept her busy with a steady stream of guest shots and supporting roles in comedies and dramas. She starred with Patricia Heaton as a sparring mother and daughter on the ABC sitcom “Room for Two” in 1992, and she was a series regular on the brief series “Conrad Bloom” in 1998 and Sean Hayes vehicle “Sean Saves the World” in 2013-14.
She appeared in a number of TV movies, and guested on shows ranging from “Touched by an Angel” and “The OC” to “The Good Wife” and “The Sopranos,” on the latter of which she appeared as a psychotherapist that Tony Soprano’s daughter Meadow goes to see. She memorably guested on a 2002 episode of “Law & Order: Criminal Intent” as a ruthless Jewish matriarch who has her daughter-in-law murdered.
Born in Portland, Maine, to a mother, Lucille Potter Lavin, who once a coloratura soprano opera singer onstage and on the radio, Lavin first took the stage at the age of 5. She graduated from the College of William and Mary in 1959 with a degree in theater.
The actress made her Broadway debut in 1962 in the Harold Prince-directed musical comedy “A Family Affair,” followed by “The Riot Act” the next year. She returned to the Rialto in 1966, again for Prince, in the musical comedy “It’s a Bird…It’s a Plane…It’s Superman.” Also during the 1960s, she appeared on Broadway in “Something Different,” written and directed by Carl Reiner, and John Guare’s “Cop-Out.” Other New York credits during the period include “Oh, Kay!” in 1960, “On a Clear Day, You Can See Forever” in 1966 and 1973’s “The Enemy Is Dead.” Also, for TV, she appeared in a 1967 production of “Damn Yankees.”
Lavin made her television debut in a 1963 episode of “The Doctors and Nurses”; after “Damn Yankees” she appeared in a 1969 segment of “CBS Playhouse” called “Sadbird.” There were a few TV movies and guest appearances on “Rhoda” and “Harry O” before she did a one-season run from 1975-76 on ABC’s hit police comedy “Barney Miller” as Det. Janice Wentworth.” After starting “Alice” in 1976 she continued guested on other shows, including “Phyllis” and “Family.”
For decades, the actress never really had a film career; she played Kermit’s doctor in “The Muppets Take Manhattan” in 1984; in 1989 she had supporting roles in Alan J. Pakula’s “See You in the Morning” and Alain Resnais’ Jules Feiffer-penned “I Want to Go Home.” But she was drawn to film later in her career. She had supporting roles in Alan Poul’s Jennifer Lopez vehicle “The Back-up Plan” in 2010 and Jennifer Aniston-Paul Rudd comedy “Wanderlust” in 2012, and was excellent as an Alzheimer’s-afflicted mother in Michael Maren’s 2014 film “A Short History of Decay.”
She appeared on Broadway in 2016 in “Our Mother’s Brief Affair.” Variety said: “Not even the sainted Linda Lavin can save the deeply unpleasant character she plays in ‘Our Mother’s Brief Affair,’ a lazy play by Richard Greenberg commissioned and first produced by South Coast Rep, now being given a Broadway airing by Manhattan Theater Club. Stubbornly lacking in dramatic tension, the uneventful narrative features a mean-spirited woman who may or may not be on her deathbed, recounting a closely held secret to her disagreeable grown children.”
After meeting actor-drummer Steve Bakunas during the 2002 run of “Hollywood Arms,” the couple married in 2005 and subsequently established residence in Wilmington, N.C., and converted a garage into the Red Barn Studio Theatre, which they ran together. The actress appeared there in productions of “Doubt,” “Collected Stories,” “Driving Miss Daisy” and “The Tale of the Allergist’s Wife,” among others, and also directed plays in the region.
Lavin was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame in 2011.
She was thrice married, the first time to actor Ron Liebman from 1969-81, the second time to actor Kip Niven from 1982-92.
Lavin is survived by third husband Bakunas.
